In a world with an intellectual history of seven thousand years behind it, where do Pakistanis stand, what are they doing, what do they aspire to be, and what ought they to be doing? This Blog takes Notes of all of that ...

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Drone warriors

There
are tribal citizens who favor Drone attacks!

“.
. . interviews by The Economist with twenty residents of
the tribal areas confirmed that many see individual drone strikes as preferable
to the artillery barrages of the Pakistani military. They also insisted that
the drones do not kill many civilians—a view starkly at odds with mainstream
Pakistani opinion. “No one dares tell the real picture,” says an elder from
North Waziristan. “Drone attacks are killing the militants who are killing
innocent people.”

NATIONAL
surveys find that Pakistanis are overwhelmingly opposed to CIA drone strikes
against suspected militants in the tribal badlands close to the Afghan border.
The strikes are seen by many as an abuse of sovereignty, a symbol of American
arrogance and the cause of civilian deaths. So when Sofia Khan, a school
administrator from Islamabad, travelled with hundreds of anti-drone campaigners
to a ramshackle town bordering the restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA) last October she was stunned by what some tribesmen there had to say.

One
man from South Waziristan heatedly told her that he and his family approved of
the remote-controlled aircraft and wanted more of them patrolling the skies
above his home. Access to the tribal regions is very difficult for foreign
journalists; but several specialists and researchers on the region, who did not
want to be identified, say there is at least a sizeable minority in FATA who
share that view.

Surveys
are also notoriously difficult to carry out in FATA. A 2009 poll in three of
the tribal agencies found 52% of respondents believed drone strikes were
accurate and 60% said they weakened militant groups. Other surveys have found
much lower percentages in favour. But interviews by The Economist with
twenty residents of the tribal areas confirmed that many see individual drone
strikes as preferable to the artillery barrages of the Pakistani military. They
also insisted that the drones do not kill many civilians—a view starkly at odds
with mainstream Pakistani opinion. “No one dares tell the real picture,” says
an elder from North Waziristan. “Drone attacks are killing the militants who
are killing innocent people.”

American
claims about the accuracy of its drone attacks are hard to verify. The best
estimate is provided by monitoring organisations that track drone attacks
through media reports, an inexact method in a region where militants block
access to strike sites. However, the most thorough survey, by the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism, suggests a fall in civilian casualties, with most
news sources claiming no civilians killed this year despite 22 known strikes.

Though
there is ample evidence that the Pakistani government has given its secret
blessing to the CIA programme, it still allows anti-drone sentiment to blossom.
Domestic anger over drones can be a useful negotiating chip on other issues,
says one former American official. The government also fears reprisals from
militants.

Supporters
of the drones in Pakistan’s media are even more reluctant to speak frankly.
Many commentators admit to approving of drones in the absence of government
moves to clear terrorist sanctuaries. But they dare not say so in print.

In
2010 a group of politicians and NGOs published a “Peshawar Declaration” in
support of drones. Life soon became difficult for the signatories. “If anyone
speaks out they will be eliminated,” says Said Alam Mehsud, one of the
organisers, who was forced to leave Pakistan for a time.

As
for Ms Khan, she has had a partial rethink. “I still want the drones to end,”
she says. “But if my government wants to do something they should do it
themselves, without foreign help.”

The Blogger

The blogger cherishes a cosmopolitan spirit; he is a moralist; a rationalist; a philosopher; a political philosopher; he believes in Classical Liberalism, as a Theory of Conduct.
He has substantially contributed to the founding of the first free market think tank of Pakistan, Alternate Solutions Institute.
He is a writer who wrote / published dozens of articles on a variety of issues, and is author of 4 books.
He wrote / published short-stories in Punjabi, a regional language of Pakistan.
He composes poetry both in Urdu and Punjabi, and has already published one collection.